Lack of practicals worries Indian medics in China

The pandemic and subsequent lockdowns have severely disrupted the studies of Indian students attending medical colleges in China. Medics say missing practical lessons is their biggest concern.

Surat: A number of Indian students are admitted every year to study MBBS in China, but since the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic, they are suffering big time which has made some of them go through mental stress. Students had no option but to return to India when the pandemic hit in March 2020, and since then they have been attending classes online. The lack of practical classes is one of the major reasons for anxiety among these students as just theory, without practicals, doesn't hold much importance in the MBBS course.

Siddhi Pandya, a resident of Surat and a third-year MBBS student in China's Wuhan, is currently worried about her career as she has not attended any practical class for the last 17 months. Speaking to ETV Bharat, Pandya said that she never expected the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns will go so long. She said that she had come to India from Wuhan to surprise her parents in March 2020, but never thought she will get stuck here.

She said the online classes run from early morning till evening but knowledge without practicals in the medical field has become a matter of concern for students. A young Pakistani man, studying medicine in China, committed suicide recently, while some students suffered heart attacks due to mental stress. Pandya further said that students are unable to concentrate on online classes due to stress.

Many students live in villages and suffer due to poor network connectivity - another reason for stress among students. We will have to treat patients in the future, but how will we be able to do that just with theoretical knowledge through online classes? Practical knowledge is very much needed in the field of medicine as just theory makes no sense without practicals. We are just waiting to go to our college to finish our course as soon as possible," she said.

Keeping in view the plight of thousands of students, Manish Kapadia, a senate member of the Veer Narmad South Gujarat University (VNSGU), has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and India's ambassador to China urging them to send these students to their college in China so that they complete their course.

Kapadia told ETV Bharat that thousands of Indian students, enrolled in medical colleges in China, are stranded due to the lockdown. "Students are not satisfied with just online classes as they are missing practicals. I have requested the government to make an arrangement to send these students to China so that they take their practical classes and complete their course," he added.